Date of birth:

January 9th, 1899 (Dijon, France)

Date of death:

August 18th, 1942 (Dijon, France)

Nationality:

French (1870-present, Republic)

Eager to act, he formed a resistance group with friends like André Jarrot in 1940. As Chalon was on the demarcation line, he quickly "specialized" in helping the escaped French prisoners of war he housed. feeds and transfers to the southern zone, thanks to multiple complicity and the help of his wife Jeanne.

Camille Chevalier refuses to mount gasifiers on cars because, he says, saving gasoline is indirectly working for the enemy. Living on his savings and his wife's income as a seamstress, he abandoned his profession to devote himself to his clandestine activities under the name of Louis Bayard.

Entered into contact with Joseph Dubar, head of the Belgian intelligence network "Ali France", he joined the organization in 1941. His home was used as a mailbox for "Ali France" as well as for the British military intelligence network "Gloria SMH "which it also sends mail to the southern zone.

At the beginning of 1942, Camille Chevalier broadened his activity as a smuggler to the Allied soldiers and in particular to Belgians seeking to join Great Britain. He also succeeded in obtaining the stamps of the town hall of Chalon, as well as those of neighboring municipalities to produce false papers.

It is estimated that several hundred people will have used its services.

On July 11, 1942, a Gestapo agent posing as an escapee knocked on his door. Received like the others, Chevalier gave him a false identity card before going into the free zone to carry network mail. In his absence, Madame Chevalier is worried because, instead of staying hidden while waiting for the line to cross, the "escapee" goes out into town several times.

On July 13, Camille Chevalier is back. In the evening, while he dined at his house in the company of several resistant friends including Simone Monier, responsible in Dijon for the accommodation of escaped prisoners of war, the Gestapo intervened and arrested everyone on the denunciation of the agent of the Gestapo infiltrated. Madame Chevalier was released on August 5.

Transferred on July 25 to Dijon prison, tried on August 6, Camille Chevalier was sentenced to death, along with Simone Monier who was finally interned in Germany and released in 1945. Camille Chevalier was shot on August 18, 1942 in Dijon. First buried on site, his body will then be transferred to the western cemetery of Chalon-sur-Saône. Camille Chevalier was posthumously elevated to the rank of captain.

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• - Camille CHEVALIER | L'Ordre de la Libération et son Musée